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Thursday, May 3, 2012

Ten Years, One Place

It takes time to get settled and grow in one place. When Hubby and I were at the beginning of our relationship, the months of May and November seemed to always bring changes. For the first years, one of those months would roll around and one of us was either getting a new job, or we were moving. There was more of the latter than the former. After our wedding, we rented our first apartment in Norwood, MA. (in a November) We loved having our own space and being able to decorate it ourselves, coming home to "our place." And we swore that there wouldn't be any roommates, unless we gave birth to them. :)

A year into renting the apartment, we discovered that we really hated putting up so much money per month for something that we didn't own. So with a dream forming in our minds and NO experience in house-shopping, we set forth, full steam ahead. We ended up choosing a house forty miles away from the apartment, closer to Hubby's work and much, much further from mine. I was apprehensive moving so far away but Hubby affirmed that it would be great. Once we made the decision things moved rather quickly, with home inspections, booking a moving company and settling into our new humble abode. (In the month of May, nonetheless.) Before the boxes were even unpacked, we made a promise: "Ten years, one place." No more moving around, let's settle down and get comfortable.

Today marks the tenth anniversary of moving into our home. Home ownership hasn't always been the easiest thing, but it was a good decision. Even if it was a little bit by-the-seat-of-our-pants. We've learned lots of things, like what to do when the previous owner leaves you with no oil in the tank and it's cold for May. Not to mention that the oil also fuels the hot water system, can you live without hot water for three days while moving into your house?? We've changed every room in this house, and spent thousands of dollars at Home Depot. We've discovered the joys of needing a snowblower AND a lawnmower within a week's time of each other. We've learned that you have to be careful what kind of flowers you put in your flowerboxes in full sun, the importance of properly insulating your home, and how you deal with pesky critters like mice and carpet beetles. We've been chagrined with having to fix mistakes like bathtub faucets shooting off and watching my brother the plumber SMASH a toilet with a sledgehammer because it was glued to the floor. We've dealt with having to repair anything that the previous owner "updated" because they must've been asleep when they were working, due to the fact that anything he did wasn't level, plumb or square.

We've had so many happy memories in this home. Getting a dog. Gutting a kitchen. Bringing both of our babies from the hospital. So many great things in the last ten years! And we've kept our promise: ten years in one place. We just started thinking about our next place. Hopefully that will be more like 20 or 30 years.